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Stellar guard play leads Pac-12 women’s basketball teams

• Pac-12 Networks is slated to televise every Pac-12 women’s basketball matchup this week, including top-25 clashes in the desert when No. 19/19 ARIZONA STATE hosts No. 6/7 STANFORD and No. 24/21 CALIFORNIA on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

• Also headlining the week’s matchups are two of the nation’s most prolific scorers battling on the court when Cal travels to ARIZONA. All-American candidates Kristine Anigwe of Cal, who is ninth in the nation in scoring (22.1 ppg) and first in rebounding (13.9 rpg), takes on the Wildcats’, who look to bounce back from a loss after winning a school-record 11 in a row, Pac-12 Player of the Week Aari McDonald leading the way as the nation’s second-leading scorer (25.4 ppg). McDonald is coming off back-to-back 30-point games last week, becoming the first Wildcat to post back-to-back 30-point outings.

• Three Pac-12 teams are ranked in the top 10 for the fifth time this season, OREGON leading the way at No. 5/5 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/WBCA polls. The three top-10 teams ties for the most of any conference. Five teams in all are ranked, also tied for the most. STANFORD is No. 6/7, OREGON STATE is No. 10/10, ARIZONA STATE is No. 19/19 and CALIFORNIA is 24/21. Three other teams are receiving votes.

• As of Jan. 7, four Pac-12 teams have a RPI in the top 20, including Stanford (4), Oregon (8), Arizona State (13) and California (20). It is the second-most teams in the top 20 of any conference. Eleven Pac-12 teams have RPI in the top 100, including seven with RPI in the top 60.

• The success of Pac-12 teams this season can be partly attributed to stellar guard play. Six from the Pac-12 rank among the top 25 in assists per game and seven are ranked in the top 30. Meanwhile, UA’s McDonald is the top-scoring guard in the country.

• For the sixth time in nine weeks, a UTAH freshman earns the Pac-12’s top freshman weekly honor. Dru Gylten takes home Pac-12 Freshman of the Week nods for the second time this season. She leads all freshmen in the country in assists per game (6.3) and ranks 12th overall.

• Oregon’s Maite Cazorla is on the verge of becoming the third Pac-12 guard this season and 13th all-time to dish out at least 600 assists. Only three active players in the NCAA have recorded at least 600 career assists, including COLORADO’s Kennedy Leonard and fellow Duck Sabrina Ionescu. Ionescu has, by far, the most career assists of any active junior in the country, recording 185 more than the next junior ranked.

ROAD TO TAMPA
Teams across the country will be focused on getting to Tampa this season, the site of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Final Four on April 5 and 7. To get to Tampe, Fla., teams will have to go through regional sites in Albany, N.Y., Chicago, Greensboro, N.C., and Portland, Ore., where the Oregon State Beavers are hosts Regional play takes place from March 29-April 1, with specific dates to be announced. The first and second round of the tournament will take place on 16 campus sites with the top-16 seeds hosting, March 22-25, 2019. The top 64 teams will learn their fates in the broadcast of the annual selection show on Monday, March 18, 2019.